I do not here
render with the Arian gloss of A.V., infelicitously reproduced in
the equally inexact translation of R.V. The insertion of the
words “it shall be given” and “it is” is
apparently due to a pedantic prejudice against translating
ἀλλά by “save” or
“except,” a rendering which is supported in classical
Greek by such a passage as Soph., O.T. 1331, and in
Hellenistic Greek by Mark ix. 8. The Vulgate has, quite
correctly, “non est meum dare vobis, sed quibus paratum est
a patre meo,” so far as the preservation of the Son as the
giver is concerned. A similar error is to be found in both the
French and German (Luther’s) of Bagster’s polyglot
edition. Wiclif has correctly, “is not myn to geve to
you but to whiche it is made redi of my fadir.” So
Tyndale, “is not myne to geve but to them for whom it is
prepared of my father.” The gloss begins with Cranmer
(1539), “it shall chance unto them that it is prepared
for,” and first appears in the Geneva of 1557 as the A.V. has
perpetuated it. The Rheims follows the vobis of the
Vulgate, but is otherwise correct. cf. note on
Theodoret in this edition, p. 169.